Merciless Russian horror "Queen of Spades". Reviews of the tricks of the domestic vengeful spirit

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-11 20:26

Children's horror story or urban legend about the Queen of Spades is familiar to every compatriot. Building a horror film on its basis is a potentially winning attempt, it is strange that no one thought of this before Podgaevsky. The film The Queen of Spades received mixed reviews. But the opinion of most critics is unanimous: this is a standard film project that uses proven plot twists, canonically genre clichés. The spectrum of associations caused by watching the film is the widest - from "Mother" to "Woman in Black".

Required program

Screenwriter and director Svyatoslav Podgaevsky, who sincerely loves and understands the genre, while shooting the film The Queen of Spades (reviews confirm this fact), confidently skated the “mandatory program”. He managed to perform all the main elements surprisingly competently, making boring clichés work and not letting the viewer get bored. Everything is in order with the connectedness and dynamics of the story. An appropriate gloomy musical accompaniment is provided by the disturbing melodies of Pavel Ruminov, who returned to the horror genre after Dead Daughters. A juicy picture among the oppressive atmosphere is a meritcameraman Anton Zenkovich and his "depressive" camera. And the surroundings of apartments in domestic new buildings when watching the movie "The Queen of Spades" are called by reviews the main distinguishing feature, thanks to which you will not confuse Russian horror with overseas counterparts.

Storyline

Reviews and reviews of the film "The Queen of Spades" note with great regret that the plot twists and turns of horror, hiding behind a stylish impressive picture, do not shine with either originality or novelty. Four teenagers of different ages decide to perform a mystical rite to summon the Queen of Spades. Twelve-year-old Anna (Alina Babak) becomes the direct performer, after which the whole company becomes an object of persecution for an otherworldly creature who has come into our world. The father of the main character and the involved "specialist" become the protector of the children. "The Queen of Spades" - horrors, reviews of which only do what they say about the secondary and illogical nature of the film.

Actor casting

It is certainly worth noting that the more than successful hit of almost the entire acting team in the stereotypes of the genre is a huge advantage of the picture "The Queen of Spades". Reviews of critics about the skill of the involved actors are mostly laudatory. The only exception was Evgenia Loza, who, according to film fans, failed to imbue the idea of horror and reveal the potential of her character. Igor Khripunov, Alina Babak and Vladimir Seleznev especially excelled and looked advantageous against the background of the rest. Alina's performance was terribly reminiscent of Linda Blair from The Exorcistdevil”, Khripunov looked convincingly in the form of an inhabitant who encountered the supernatural for the first time. Well, Vladimir Seleznev embodied the collective image of fighters with the undead from Van Helsing to the old woman-medium from Astral.

The first swallow

Domestic cinema, trying to get away from auteur cinema and start forming a typical "spectator" industry, is trying to work on entertainment genres. Significant success in this field has not yet been observed, but The Queen of Spades (reviews from film critics are proof of this) is a significant step in this direction. The brainchild of Podgaevsky is a real “pop” film product, a mystical horror that, although it looks at American horror films and collects their stamps, has an adequate working design. And any modern horror film can be reproached for being secondary and illogical.

Film structure

The structure of the picture consists of conditional two heterogeneous parts. The first focuses on a group of teenagers performing the Black Rite and the appearance of an auto mechanic, Anna's divorced father with a rather murky past. After a successful challenge, the teenagers try to figure out what the vengeful spirit needs and how to get rid of it. At this time, one of them dies a painful death, someone is simply thoroughly frightened. In this part, the director demonstrates confident high-quality work with genre tools. Then the second part begins, in which a “specialist” appears who knows much more than those around him. Herea series of "explanatory" dialogues is launched, the action switches to adult characters. It culminates in an act of exorcism taking place in the hospital, eerily reminiscent of the "Casket of Damnation".

"Queens of Spades" of domestic cinema

Judging by the fact that films based on Pushkin's "Queen of Spades" were filmed at the very dawn of cinema in Russia, this work is very popular among artists. Moreover, it is easy to shoot - no bulky scenery is needed, there are no battle scenes, but there is plenty of drama.

• First production - short film "The Queen of Spades" (1910). In the project directed by Pyotr Chardynin, little remains of the original, only a brief outline of the basis. Moreover, the opera was taken as the basis, and not the story itself. There is no musical accompaniment, only credits. The style of that time - theatricality, an abundance of makeup. Look curious.
• The second adaptation of The Queen of Spades (1916) is an innovative production by Yakov Protazanov. The picture surprises with thoughtful screen compositions, large-scale plans, lighting and double exposures. Acting, especially the king of the Russian silent film industry, Ivan Mozzhukhin, is more than psychological and nuanced. The director boldly experiments with the techniques of flashbacks, the author's vision of the characters.
• The third picture is The Queen of Spades (1960). Director Roman Tikhomirov presented to the audience the eternal classics in an excellent performance. This is a solid musical film based on Pushkin's story withopera arrangement by the great P. I. Tchaikovsky.